"If more of us valued food and cheer and song over hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - J.R.R. Tolkien

Thursday, September 21, 2017

The Clone Wars: Season Six

We have reached the end of Season Six, The Lost Missions, in our exploration of The Clone Wars. I will post a reflection on the entire series next Tuesday. But first, a quick look at this most recent stretch.

General Impressions

Anyone who has watched as much television as I have catches on to the basic pattern quickly: most shows end poorly. The creative well runs dry after a while. The lack of fresh ideas leaves the writers relying too heavily on the audience's investment in characters and on predictable narrative patterns.

Not so for The Clone Wars. All due credit to George Lucas, the Star Wars well never seems to run dry. Whatever criticism one might throw at him, you can say this much for his galaxy far, far away: there is always more to explore. While the episodes produced for The Clone Wars were, to the end, decidedly uneven, the overall quality was awfully high in the last two seasons. Season Six includes only four arcs. The first is outstanding. The last is strong. The second has its moments. Even the one clunker would be okay minus Jar Jar. Best of all for me, no droid episodes.

The opening Inhibitor Chip arc is the gem of Season Six. Following right on the heels of Season Five's excellent finale, the story comes darn close to exposing the secret of Order 66, the plan executed in Revenge of the Sith for the clone troopers to slaughter nearly all of the Jedi simultaneously. More importantly to me, it explores the basic dilemma of the existence of the Clone Army more deeply than any other story in the series. The star of the tale is Fives, a clone trooper we first met in Season One's "Rookies." "Conspiracy" is the second episode in the four-parter and the one in which Fives's role kicks into gear.

The Disappeared arc is a Jar Jar story: 'nuff said, really. It's a Jar Jar love story, even. His wing man for the episode is Mace Windu: also odd. This story might have been more interesting without Jar Jar but we'll never know. "Part II" is rescued by a surprise cameo so "Part I" gets the nod.

AZI-3 is a medical droid and Fives's sidekick in the Inhibitor Chip arc. His voice grates on me a little (sorry, Ben Diskin) and I find the comic relief he offers off-putting at times but he's still an essential part of one of the best stories in the entire series. Plus, he doubles as a jet ski!

Onward?

No, this is it for me. For anyone who's eager for more, there are unfinished episodes to watch at StarWars.com and also comic books of other unused stories. But there are no more on Netflix. I have one more post next week to wrap up this 2-year+ project but then it's time to move on to other things.

Please visit my friend Andrew Leon today for his Season Six recap. Next Tuesday: "What Is The Clone Wars?," my full series review.

2 comments:

I think your season six recap is better than mine but, then, I had already gone into the unfinished episodes and was thinking of those.So far, I'm really impressed, but you can see my review of the first of them on Tuesday.